Ethel Snelson Summers was born on on July 24, 1912 to a newly-emigrated couple, Ethel Snelson and Edwin Summers, situated in Bordesley Street in Christchurch, Essie was always proud of both her British heritage and her New Zealand citizenship. Both her parents were exceptional storytellers, and this, combined with her early introduction to the Anne of Green Gables stories, engendered in her a life-long fascination with the craft of writing and the colorful legacy of pioneers everywhere.

Leaving school at 14 when her father's butcher shop experienced financial difficulties, she worked for a number of years in draper's shops and later turned her experiences to good use in writing the romantic novels for which she became famous.

She met her husband-to-be William Flett when she was only 13 years old, but it was 13 years before she consented to marry him. A minister's wife and the mother of two, William and Elizabeth, she yet found many opportunities to pen short stories, poetry and newspaper columns before embarking on her first novel, which sold to the firm of Mills & Boon in 1956.

Summers died in Taradale, Hawkes Bay on the August 27, 1998.

Single novels

• 1957 New Zealand Inheritance (Heatherleigh)
• 1958 Bachelors Galore
• 1958 The Time and the Place
• 1959 Master of Tawhai
• 1959 The Lark in the Meadow (Nurse Abroad)
• 1960 Moon Over the Alps
• 1961 Come Blossom Time My Love
• 1962 No Roses in June
• 1962 The House of the Shining Tide
• 1963 Where No Roads Go
• 1963 South to Forget (Nurse Mary's Engagement)
• 1964 The Smoke and the Fire
• 1964 Bride in Flight
• 1965 No Legacy for Lindsay
• 1965 No Orchids By Request
• 1965 Sweet are the Ways
• 1966 Heir to Windrush Hill
• 1966 His Serene Miss Smith
• 1966 Postscript to Yesterday
• 1967 A Place Called Paradise
• 1968 Rosalind Comes Home
• 1968 Meet on My Ground
• 1969 Revolt - and Virginia
• 1969 The Kindled Fire
• 1970 Summer in December
• 1970 The Bay of the Nightingales
• 1971 Return to Dragonshill
• 1971 The House on Gregor's Brae
• 1972 South Island Stowaway
• 1973 A Touch of Magic
• 1973 The Forbidden Valley
• 1974 Through all the years
• 1974 The Gold of Noon
• 1975 Anna of Strathallan
• 1976 Not by Appointment
• 1976 Beyond the Foothills
• 1977 Goblin Hill
• 1977 Adair of Starlight Peaks
• 1978 Spring in September
• 1978 The Lake of the Kingfisher
• 1979 My Lady of the Fuchsias
• 1979 One More River to Cross
• 1980 The Tender Leaves
• 1981 Autumn in April
• 1981 Daughter of the Misty Gorges
• 1982 A Lamp for Jonathan
• 1983 A Mountain for Luenda
• 1983 Season of Forgetfulness
• 1984 MacBride of Tordarroch
• 1985 Winter in July
• 1986 To Bring you Joy
• 1987 High Country Governess
• 1995 South Horizon Man
• 1995 So Comes Tomorrow
• 1996 Caleb's Kingdom
• 1997 Design for Life

Non-fiction

• 1974 THE ESSIE SUMMERS STORY

Omnibus

• Summer in December / Bay of the Nightingales / Return to Dragonshill (1976)
• Master of Tawhai / His Serene Miss Smith / Place Called Paradise (1977)
• Essie Summers Fifth Harlequin Omnibus (1980)
• No Legacy for Lindsay/ No Orchids By Request / Sweet Are the Ways (1980)
• The House on Gregor's Brae / South Island Stowaway / Touch of Magic (1981)
• The Forbidden Valley / Through All the Years / Gold of Noon (1984)

Anthologies in collaboration

• Golden Harlequin Library Vol. XXXIII: Flower for a Bride / Bachelors Galore / Hope for the Doctor (1970) (with Barbara Rowan and Margaret Malcolm)
• Golden Harlequin Library Vol. XVII: No Silver Spoon / Nurse Nolan / The Time and the Place (1971) (with Jane Arbor and Susan Barrie)
• Other Miss Donne / Thistle and the Rose / Beyond the Foothills (1985) (with Jane Arbor and Margaret Rome)
• The Little Dragon / Adair of Starlight Peaks / The Dark Warrior (1987) (with Betty Neels and Mary Wibberley)